Blu-Ray's Pyrrhic Victory

A recent Harris Interactive Poll showed that approximately 93 percent of consumers still don't have a Blu-ray player. In fact more Americans own a HD-DVD capable player (11 percent) than a Blu-ray capable player (7 percent). Their report also provides evidence that the attrition of the HD-DVD v. Blu-ray war continues to hurt sales. Customers reported confusion about the high definition formats.

While the ps3 is the trojan horse for blu, not everyone who owns one owns the accompanying movies for it. I am not trying to spin this but think about it.

When you buy a dvd player you generally buy dvd's to watch on it. Hddvd players are no exception especially now that places like amazon, ebay, craigs list and fry's have them for dirt cheap. Basically when you bought a hddvd player you play dvd or hddvd on it. Same goes for regular bluray player. If you get a samsung or rca or ... blu player you are going to play dvd or blu movies on it.

You can not assume that for every ps3 sold is an automatic person who buys blu movies. PS3 is in a class by itself. At least when you know someone has a 360 they buy games for it. I know a few people who bought the PS3 strictly because it was the cheapest blu player and dont play games. I also know a few people who got the ps3 strictly for the games and dont have any movies. It goes both ways which is why it doesnt get the recognition it deserves when omitted from these polls (IMO).

Blu as a format for movies is great. I dont own very many blu movies myself but I have been picking up cheap hddvd movies now and then. My principle format of choice is good old fashioned dvd simply because of the convenience in my household. Far more opportunities to watch a dvd in my house (or car or on the go) than being restricted to one big screen.

I love how people love to spin that, add PS3 + stand alone blu ray players and you get the total amount of people who have blu ray capabilities, is that not so hard to understand? Or are these people really pathetic fanboys?

The biggest problem facing Blu Ray in terms of home video is that DVD upscaling has gotten really good at a very cheap price. You couple that with the still high costs of Blu Ray players and movies compared to DVD and in this economy Blu Ray will suffer.

There just isn't a big enough leap from upscaled DVD to Blu Ray for the average consumer to justify the higher cost. Everyone here on N4G certainly see's the differences so I am sure most will be quick to disagree. But we are talking the average consumer here. People who don't spend thousands and thousands on their entertainment setup. That is MOST of the U.S.... Most consumers are just not that hardcore about their movie watching.

Until the prices of Blu Ray come down for movies and are on par with DVD.... well Blu Ray will trail.

The quality is 10 times better than an upscaled dvd, up scaling cannot 'magic' information out of thin air that IS NOT on the dvd disc. Blu Ray has more room, hence more information, hence more pixels per image...ie.......better. YOU FAIL

I own a stand alone player. I never said there isn't a difference, because there is. But to the AVERAGE consumer they just aren't willing to justify the purchase (especially now). There are far more people willing to "pass" on Blu Ray right now and stick to DVD.

Blu Ray take up has been really quite good up to now even without PS3, I dont know why these articles continue to crop up. As for streaming High Def movies, not until the broadband speeds and monthly downloads limits increase massively (in the UK anyway) plus how many people prefer to own hard copies of films and games, I know I do and I'm sure many others do to. Watching a movie on a 40" screen compared to a 19" monitor is another benefit of Blu-Ray players. I know you can transfer from PC to TV but it's too much of hassle for most folk, myself included. Sorry but Blu-Ray is going to be around for a long time yet.